The entering in of Hamath, is the significant name given to the great valley between Lebanon and Anti - Lebanon, which the Greeks called Cœle- Syria; for it was the main entrance to Palestine from the north, down which the hosts of Assyria and Babylon so constantly poured. Evidently it extended at this time beyond Damascus.
The river of Egypt is not, as might naturally be thought, the Nile, or any of its branches; for the word used signifies rather a “brook” or “torrent,” and the torrent, described in Numbers 34:5 and Joshua 15:4 as the border of Israel, is identified by all authorities with the torrent falling into the sea at El-Arish.